Week 11 - Missing the cold weather.

Benito Soliven

Everything is good here. After I got over my sickness, I feel better than ever. This week really nothing happened. We don't have any investigators, so our whole day is tracting, RCs and LAs. I'm still having a blast, but really missing the cold weather. I had my first Zone Conference this last week. It was fun. We played minute to win it, but my team did not win it. We had some American food. Finally something without rice. We also had a testimony meeting. It is one of my zone leaders last cycles so of course he bore his testimony. Really that's all I have to say. I'm all caught up on pictures too. So not much else to say.

Tanner's 1st Baptism - Brother Mark Elmo

 

Baptism of Ashley Naval

 

Members of the Benito Soliven Ward
 

 

Week 10 - Dengue Fever

Benito Soliven

Hey everything is going great over here. You guys definitely need to come visit here after my mission. I'm pretty decent in Tagalog right now, but Ilocano is a killer. It's much harder. I just barely bought some old Vietnam bolo knives from an old Vietnam Vet. I figured that it was second best to a machete for Britt. They are pretty sweet I'm not going to lie. This last week I had Dengue fever. So unfortunately we had to stay inside for some of the week. I will never complain about a normal headache again. I went to the hospital, because sister Rahlf wanted to watch my blood count, and all they really wanted me to do was come back so they could make me pay more. Luckily we only had to go for one visit. Now I'm doing pretty good. Just a small headache. We had our Baptism this week and it was great. Sister Princess is awesome. I will try and upload pictures later. Everything else is fine.

Baptism of Princess Cacayuran

 

Helping with the Dried Corn Harvest



Tanner with his broom!

At the hospital for Dengue Fever!

 

Week 9 - Members are Awesome!

Benito Soliven

Its still hot here basically 95 degrees from 12 PM to 8 PM and the humidity makes it feel a lot worse. I finally got sick for my first time. I don't know what it is yet. I have a fever of 102 and I've had it since yesterday. Other than that I have inflamed joints and a raging headache constantly. We couldn't even work after conference yesterday and it doesn't matter how much I sleep I always feel tired.

I finally got my package. I kinda gave it all away. Haha I couldn't just eat all that candy so I gave some of it away to other missionaries after conference and then to all the kids around our apartment I gave the rest. In my next package you should send me my old contacts and maybe 2 real shirts. Maybe more physical things that I can give away. I want to leave something with our converts here. and if you could get it here before I'm transferred that would be awesome. 

Members are awesome. On the way up here we were on a jeep and a member from the San Mariano ward was on the jeep to, and she had a bunch of native oranges and of course she gave us some. I love it here. The work is great and even though we haven't seen much progression these people are so amazing here. I've been thinking about maybe spending a year or two here after my mission. Maybe to study at on of the universities. Other than that our next baptism is October 18. After that we don't have any and I'm not sure if we will for awhile. We've been getting punted quite often. As for conference Jörg threw it down. He was even dissing on fat people. Gotta love those chastisers.

 

Week 8 - My Mother's Lucky Machete!

Benito Soliven

Dear Family,

Not much has changed and there hasn't been any crazy experiences so I really don't have a lot to write about. I'm having a good time and the work is hard and tiring. Something interesting I found out. The songs 'Bebot' and 'The APL song' by Black eyed peas are in Tagalog. So that's pretty cool. Of course everyone loves them here, because Apl is Filipino. Our next baptism is Princess Cacayuran which her baptism date is set for October 18.

 

Yesterday we were down at Maluno Sur and it was about to rain and they were drying corn so we had to hurry and sweep all the corn back into the bags. I think I have pictures of it. We also cooked a dinner for that former bishop but he still hasn't attended church. We reactivated 2 members this week.

 

Yes one of my zone leaders were transferred and the new one is just fine. I get along with all of them. This week I asked this guy, Brother Pete, if he could get me a machete.(Brother Pete is basically the black market dealer for missionaries he gets you anything anything you want authentic Filipino) He said that we still has one from back when he was in the Vietnam War and I could have it if I liked it. So next time he comes to our district meeting I'll have my machete officially. Happy Birthday mom. 

Love Tanner.